"That"s just what Grandfather says to do," said she. "I wish I were brave."
"You are," exclaimed Andy.
"No, I"m not, because I have a charm. See, this little ivory monkey."
She pulled out the charm from the neck of her dress.
"While I wear this, nothing can happen to me. It"s lucky."
"I don"t believe in charms," said Andy.
Hortense was displeased at his doubt.
"Well, you"ll see," said she.
It was nearly sundown; so Andy ran home, and Hortense returned to the house to change her dress for supper.
Said she to Highboy, "To-night you and Malay Kris and I are going to hide in the secret room in the attic. There Andy will join us, and we will watch for Jeremiah and the other."
"I do not wish to see Jeremiah or the other," said Highboy.
"Nevertheless, you must come," said Hortense firmly.
"Alas," mourned Highboy. "Never again will I stand on a good Brussels carpet and see the sunshine pour in the south window. Many a sad year shall I weep for the last embraces of my brother Lowboy and the dull life of home."
Hortense was struck to admiration by these moving words.
"How lovely," said she. "I didn"t know you wrote poetry."
"I have a drawer full," said Highboy, perking up a bit.
"Then you must surely come," Hortense urged. "You might be captured, or something, and then you could be dreadfully melancholy and write the beautifullest poetry!"
"True," said Highboy. "Sorrow is the food of poets."
Consequently, when all was still and Grandfather and Grandmother were safely in bed, Highboy went willingly enough with Hortense down the dark silent stairs and past Grandmother"s sitting room.
"May I not say a farewell to Lowboy?" said Highboy with tears in his voice.
"Not at all," said Hortense briskly. "He might want to come, too."
They went softly into the parlor, and Hortense whispered to Malay Kris, telling him of the night"s expedition.
"Good," said Malay Kris. "If I see the Cat or the other one, I"ll slither through their bones."
He spoke in a low, fierce voice and jumped down lightly so as not to awaken Alligator, who seemed to be asleep, but it was of no use.
Without opening his eyes, Alligator grunted,
"Where do I come in?"
"Why, you see," said Hortense embarra.s.sed, "you"re so big you couldn"t get into the little room nor climb down the ladder."
"You mean I"m not wanted," said Alligator crossly. "Very well, I"ll not go where I"m not asked. I"ll hunt alone."
"Dear me," said Hortense, "now he"ll go and swallow something he shouldn"t."
"Maybe I will and maybe I won"t," said Alligator. "It depends on my appet.i.te."
"Swallow me," said Malay Kris, "and I"ll show you a thing or two. I"ll run you as full of holes as a colander."
"You"re not to my taste," said Alligator, yawning horribly. "If I cared to, I would."
Malay Kris glared at Alligator, but as it was of no use to attack his thick hide, which was as tough as iron, he did nothing more and Hortense dragged him away.
"Save your wrath," she said.
"I have so much I don"t need to save it," said Malay Kris. "The more I spend, the more I have."
Nevertheless he came obediently enough, and Hortense and Highboy and Malay Kris climbed to the attic, went through the trapdoor, and hid in the little room. They left the door open a bit so that they could see out, and all crouched on the upper stair waiting for whatever was to come.
"What"s that?" said Malay Kris. "I heard a sound."
"It"s Andy, of course," said Hortense, running down the stairs. "I"d almost forgotten him."
Leaning over the hole beside the chimney, she called in a soft voice, "Andy, Andy."
"It"s me," said Andy, and soon he joined them.
"Why do we wait here?" Malay Kris demanded. "How can you be sure any one will come?"
"We can"t be sure, of course," Hortense said, "but it"s likely because it"s a secret place. We want to see who it is that goes with Jeremiah.
Highboy has seen him but doesn"t know his name. He"s all shiny, and p.r.i.c.kly, and hard."
"Not too hard for me," Malay Kris boasted. "I"ll run him through as though he were cheese."
"It won"t be so bad, once we see him," Hortense observed. "A thing is never so bad as you think it is beforehand."
"Except castor oil," said Andy. "That"s worse."
They all sat in silence, waiting for something to happen.
"Unless it comes soon, I"ll go out and look for it," Malay Kris growled after a time. "I rust with inaction."
"Hush!" said Hortense.
They heard the swift patter of feet on the attic stairs and across the floor.
"Only Jeremiah," Hortense whispered disappointedly, peeping out of the crack in the door. But immediately after came the clatter of metal and a bright round figure ran up the ladder after Jeremiah and disappeared through the cupola window.